The Lawrence Philips mini-series (not literally, just a metaphor)

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  • #24799
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    For Lawrence Phillips, a Dead Cellmate and Another Day of Reckoning

    By Lars Anderson ,

    May 14, 2015

    http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2453138-for-lawrence-phillips-a-dead-cellmate-and-another-day-of-reckoning

    Before death was unleashed in his two-man cell on April 11, inmate No. G31982 led a quiet life inside the stone and concrete walls of California’s Kern Valley State Prison, a haunting, fortress-like structure that rises out of a dusty patch of land in the San Joaquin Valley.

    Most mornings, inmate No. G31982 was stirred awake at 6 a.m. as guards at Kern told the nearly 4,000 all-male prisoners—the maximum-security facility was built to hold 2,400—it was time to begin the day. Soon, a hot breakfast that typically consisted of eggs, hash browns and thinly sliced ham was delivered room-service style to his cell. Many mornings, he purchased a special package of vitamins and proteins, the fuel for his late-morning workout.

    For a few hours, Kern’s most notorious prisoner then had some free time in his cell. He loved to read books—he devoured about one a week, according to several people who corresponded with him. The words in the pages were his escape, his way to fly away from his chains at Kern.

    He also wrote letters, reams of them, to old friends and mentors. He was particularly interested in the state of the Nebraska football program, wondering in his handwritten notes how it had fallen from the ranks of the nation’s elite. Yet his prose was steadfastly upbeat in his missives.

    “He was trying to earn good-behavior time in prison,” said George Darlington, an assistant coach at Nebraska for 30 years who regularly traded letters with inmate No. G31982. “He was focused on the future, on getting out and getting another chance at life.”

    Later in the morning, along with many of the condemned wearing their state-issued blues, inmate No. G31982 would be released to the yard.

    RIC FRANCIS/Associated Press
    A Kern Valley State corrections officer.

    Though there weren’t any weights to lift—”We had to get rid of the weights a few years back because inmates used them as instruments of destruction to kill each other,” said Lt. Marshall Denning—he’d work out with such intensity, it was as if he was back in the training center at the University of Nebraska.

    He’d do pushups, situps and burpees. On a pullup bar, he’d lift himself up over and over to the point of exhaustion. Other times, he’d run sprints across the yard like he was training for the 40-yard dash at the NFL combine.

    In the early afternoon, he’d be escorted back to his cell, where he’d eat a sack lunch that usually featured either a bologna or pastrami sandwich, an apple and a cookie or two. Then, for a few hours, he’d work on his appeal of his two convictions: felony assault with a deadly weapon and domestic assault. The sentences for the two guilty verdicts added up to nearly 32 years behind bars.

    Though inmate No. G31982 earned more than $5 million in the NFL from 1996 to ’99, he was now broke and couldn’t afford to hire a private lawyer. After his second conviction in 2009, he fired his public defender.

    In the evenings, he was free to roam in what is called the “Day Room Floor,” an area inside Kern where inmates can sit at tables and converse. But inmate No. G31982 almost always kept to himself—which made him an ideal prisoner to his jailers.

    “He was not someone who caused problems, and he was really quiet, just doing his own thing,” said Denning. “We have got the worst of the worst in here, the most violent of the most violent, and that was not Lawrence Phillips from what I saw. Not at all.”

    According to three sources, Phillips—the former Cornhuskers running back who was the No. 6 overall selection in the 1996 NFL draft by the St. Louis Rams—asked prison officials several times to be put in solitary confinement for his own protection.

    In at least two instances, Phillips’ wishes were honored, according to a source. But then in early April, for reasons that remain unclear, Phillips, 39, was moved from isolation into a cell with 37-year-old Damion Soward, who was the cousin of former USC Trojan and NFL wide receiver R. Jay Soward.

    Prison officials didn’t respond to a request from B/R seeking clarification on why Phillips was moved out of isolation.

    According to court documents, Damion Soward was a member of the Inland Empire Projects Gang in San Bernardino, California. He was serving 82 years to life for the murder of Michael Fairley, a rival gang member.

    “Lawrence wanted nothing to do with the gangs in that prison,” said Tony Zane, Phillips’ high school football coach at West Covina (California) High, who has communicated with Phillips about twice a month for several years. “That was why he was always asking to be moved into isolation. He knew that guys could make a name for themselves, so to speak, if they came after him because of his notoriety.”

    At 12:46 a.m. on April 11, Soward was found strangled to death in the cell he shared with Phillips, who has been named as a murder suspect. The district attorney, who has been investigating the incident for nearly one month, has yet to announce if any charges will be filed.

    Soward’s family is looking for answers. “I just want to find out what happened,” R. Jay Soward told TMZ. “That’s the only thing I care about.”

    Several people close to Phillips believe they already know what happened in that tiny cell in the dead of night on April 11.

    “I truly believe this was a situation where Soward said, ‘Only one of us is walking out of here in the morning,'” said Zane. “Look at Lawrence’s history. Yes, he has a very troubled past, but he’s never done anything like this. Look at Soward’s history as a hit man. I believe this was 100 percent self-defense. I believe Lawrence had no choice. Lawrence has been a target at Kern ever since the day he got there.”

    Getty Images
    Lawrence Phillips breaks a tackle in Nebraska’s 1996 Fiesta Bowl victory over Florida.

    Two decades ago, in the spring of 1995, I traveled from my home in New York City to Lincoln, Nebraska, to spend time with Phillips for what would turn out to be my first Sports Illustrated cover story. Phillips was entering his junior year at Nebraska, the world spread out before him like an endless buffet of chances, and he was already being compared to some of the greatest I-backs in Cornhuskers history: Mike Rozier, Roger Craig, I.M. Hipp. Phillips was the preseason Heisman Trophy favorite.

    The previous year, he had run for 1,722 yards—still a record for a sophomore at Nebraska—and helped Nebraska win the 1994 national championship. But instead of focusing on his on-field gifts, I wanted to burrow deep into Phillips’ past. Only 20 years old at the time, he had already lived a remarkably hard life. I wanted to understand what made him tick.

    In 1987, Phillips’ mother, Juanita, invited her boyfriend to stay in their home in Inglewood, California. Lawrence and the boyfriend bickered constantly—the boyfriend allegedly abused Lawrence, according to Jason Cole, then writing for the Sun Sentinel—and Lawrence began to run away from home and skip school.

    State officials eventually intervened and placed Lawrence in a foster home. After living there for only two weeks, he was transferred to MacLaren Hall, a juvenile detention center straight out of a child’s worst nightmare, a place where abuse was allegedly rampant, according to Carla Rivera of the Los Angeles Times.

    We may never have heard of Lawrence Phillips if not for Barbara Thomas, who supervised a state-supported group home in West Covina. “When I first saw Lawrence he looked very athletic, but he was smoking cigarettes,” Thomas told me back in ’95. “I knew sports would give him a chance, so I took him into our home and immediately enrolled him in sports leagues.”

    The rage that tormented Phillips’ life—”He was basically abandoned by his mom, and his dad wasn’t around, so that caused a lot of anger in Lawrence,” a Nebraska staff member told me—was his best friend on the football field. He soon emerged as one of the top high school running backs in the nation, a snorting bull of a back with 4.4 speed and always charging at the red flag. He picked Nebraska precisely because it was so far from his troubled past in California.

    When Phillips and I sat down in the lounge beneath the south end zone of Memorial Stadium, he eyed me suspiciously. I was only 23, and I tried to connect with Phillips by telling him how much I enjoyed the college lifestyle and that he should savor every moment of it.

    He eventually warmed up and then shared with me many of the horrors from his past: nights of being homeless, not going to school for weeks at a time, trying to stay a step ahead of the gangs in his neighborhood.

    “It was a tough time,” he said. “But I owe a lot to my school. They stuck with me.”

    Phillips, a sociology major, spoke about how he one day wanted to open a group home for wayward kids. He was articulate—in eighth grade, standardized tests revealed him to be intellectually gifted—and passionate when he dreamed aloud of helping others.

    As we ended our conversation, Phillips leaned closer to me. In a soft voice, he said, “I’m still working on controlling myself and my temper. Lincoln has been a great city for me to grow up and mature in, and I’m learning to stay out of situations where I could get in trouble.”

    Phillips then rose and disappeared into the Nebraska locker room. I wouldn’t see him again for four years.

    Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

    About five months after I spoke with Phillips, Nebraska traveled to East Lansing, Michigan, and administered what remains the worst drubbing of Nick Saban’s coaching career. In the Huskers’ 50-10 victory over Michigan State, Phillips rushed for 206 yards and four touchdowns. The Heisman Trophy was his to lose.

    But later that night he did just that. Phillips, according to several sources, was asleep in his Lincoln apartment when he was awakened by a phone call. The person on the other end of the line informed Phillips that his former girlfriend, Kate McEwen, was inside the apartment of sophomore quarterback Scott Frost, who is now the offensive coordinator at Oregon.

    In a fury, Phillips stormed to Frost’s apartment, scaled the wall to his third-floor balcony, entered and dragged his ex-girlfriend by her hair down three flights of stairs. Phillips was later arrested for assault. (He pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor assault charge.)

    According to several former Nebraska coaches, McEwen was Phillips’ first true love. “Lawrence has major abandonment issues, especially when it comes to females because of how he was treated by his mother,” said a former Nebraska staffer. “He was never given the proper counseling to develop coping mechanisms when he’s put in a high-stress situation. And when he got the call in the middle of the night, he just lost it.”

    Nebraska coach Tom Osborne suspended Phillips six games, but he allowed his troubled tailback to return for the final three regular-season games and for the Fiesta Bowl. Facing No. 2 Florida on Jan. 2, 1996, Nebraska won its second straight national title, demolishing the Gators 62-24. Phillips ran for 165 yards and scored three touchdowns.

    But this Nebraska team was never invited to the White House. “There was a cloud over that team, and a lot of it was because of Lawrence,” said Ron Brown, a longtime assistant at Nebraska who is now at Liberty University. “The White House wanted nothing to do with us.”

    Brown can still recall the moment he realized Phillips could have emotional problems. During Phillips’ freshman season of 1993, Nebraska played UCLA in the Rose Bowl, which sits just a few miles from where Phillips grew up. Midway through the game, Phillips, who would rush for more than 100 yards in Nebraska’s 14-13 win, fumbled the ball, and the Bruins recovered.

    Phillips ran to the bench, took a seat and began sobbing uncontrollably. It was a staggering outpouring of emotion, especially considering Barbara Thomas had never seen Phillips cry once between the ages of 12 and 18.

    “Lawrence looked like this grown man, but there he was on the bench crying like a baby,” Brown said. “I put my hands on his shoulder pads and said, ‘You’ll get more opportunities. Just stick with us.’ But in that instant I realized that there is a sensitivity to Lawrence that few people ever saw. He grew up rough, but he was innocent and naive in many ways. There was a little baby boy in there that never grew up.

    “I wondered then—and still do now—if that’s how he acted in his relationships when they didn’t go well. He just couldn’t handle trauma, like there was always something swelling inside of him. When he let someone down or someone let him down, he had a hard time coping, just like most little children. As adults we have a foundation and a way to deal with these things. But Lawrence never had that. He was never coached in the ways of life.”

    AP Photo
    As a Barcelona Dragon, Lawrence Phillips vaults over the line of the Frankfurt Galaxy in an NFL Europe game in June 1999.

    The next time I spoke to Phillips was in Barcelona, Spain, in the spring of 1999. At the time he was trying to resuscitate his flagging career in NFL Europe.

    Though Phillips was a Category 5 risk of a prospect, the Rams had selected him with the sixth overall pick of the 1996 draft. In less than two seasons in St. Louis he was fined more than 50 times for an assortment of violations. And on the field he appeared a step slower than he was at Nebraska. At the request of the Rams coaches, Phillips gained about 15 pounds from his Nebraska playing weight of 205.

    “I’ll never understand why the Rams coaches had him gain weight,” said Darlington, the longtime Nebraska assistant. “They thought he needed to bulk up, but Lawrence was already a power runner. And throw in the fact that they had a rookie quarterback [Tony Banks] who fumbled every other snap, and Lawrence had no chance. Every time he came into the game there would be nine guys at the line of scrimmage focused on him.”

    Frustrated with the losing—the Rams went 11-21 in 1996 and ’97—Phillips grew increasingly withdrawn. When head coach Dick Vermeil told Phillips late in ’97 that he was being demoted to second string, Phillips immediately left the Rams’ practice facility.

    A day later, when Vermeil announced he was releasing Phillips, he told reporters that Phillips had more potential than any running back he’d ever coached. As the coach spoke, he choked up, and his eyes moistened. He wasn’t the first to feel as if he had failed to save Lawrence Phillips.

    The Miami Dolphins picked up Phillips late in 1997. In two games he gained 44 yards on 18 carries. He was cut after he pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery for allegedly hitting a woman in a Plantation, Florida, nightclub who refused to dance with him. It was an all-too-familiar story: A woman who rejected Phillips wound up on the business end of his wrath.

    After sitting out a year, Phillips went to play for the Barcelona Dragons in NFL Europe in the spring of ’99. At the time I was researching a book on the league—The Proving Ground would be published in 2002—and everyone in the Dragons organization marveled at Phillips’ talents and his willingness to follow orders.

    “Lawrence loved to practice,” Jack Bicknell, Barcelona’s head coach, said at the time. “Every time we ran a play, he’d break through for 40 or 50 yards. I’m sure he did that all of his life because I’ve talked to people at Nebraska, and they said he was one of the hardest-working guys they ever had.”

    In the resort town of Sitges, a half-hour drive south of Barcelona, where the Dragons were based and where temptation lurked around every corner, Phillips rarely went out. Occasionally he’d play dominoes with his teammates in the lobby of the team hotel, but usually he stayed in his room or lay on the beach and listened to music.

    He also liked to wade in the Mediterranean, the warm salt water soothing to his legs. It was the perfect football environment for Phillips: He practiced, went to meetings, ate his meals, kept to himself on the beach and went to bed early—a simple life.

    Phillips thrived. He became the first player in the history of the league to rush for more than 1,000 yards in a season. He was named NFL Europe’s MVP. And he led the Dragons to the championship game, which they lost to Frankfurt 38-24.

    “Without Phillips, that team would not have won two games,” Amsterdam coach Al Luginbill said at the time. “If he can learn to run with the right people and stay away from alcohol, he can be all right. But when he boozes, he becomes a different personality.”

    AP Photo
    Lawrence Phillips leaving court in March 1997 to begin a 30-day sentence for a probation violation.

    Twenty years have passed since my first conversation with Lawrence Phillips. I sit in my home office, a middle-aged writer now, searching for clues about Phillips, trying to understand how so much promise can turn into so much despair.

    I have written Lawrence a letter requesting to speak to him—as long as he is in administrative isolation at Kern, this is the only way anyone outside of the prison can reach him—but I have yet to hear back. Phillips has told a few friends that he wants people to forget about him, but I cannot shake the mystery that is Lawrence Phillips.

    Reporters, with enough digging, can often uncover truths about their subjects that the subjects themselves cannot see. But what is the great truth about Lawrence Phillips?

    After NFL Europe, Phillips signed with the San Francisco 49ers. He didn’t last an entire season. The beginning of the end for Phillips in the Bay Area came on a Monday night game against Arizona on Sept. 27, 1999. He didn’t make a block on blitzing cornerback Aeneas Williams, who throttled quarterback Steve Young with a devastating blindside hit. Young, knocked out cold, suffered a concussion—the final one of his career. He never played again. San Francisco waived Phillips later that fall, his final exit from the NFL.

    Away from football, Phillips burned through his money. “We’d go out for a night, just the two of us, and by the end of the night there would be 30 people in our group at a club,” said one of Phillips’ friends. “Lawrence would pay for everybody. And this happened a lot. I mean, all the time.”

    Phillips, broke, had just borrowed $100 from a former high school teammate in August 2005 when he went to Exposition Park in Los Angeles to play in a pickup football game. Minutes after the game, Phillips couldn’t find the $100. Accusing a few of the teenage boys he’d been playing with of stealing from him, he drove his SUV into a throng of the kids.

    No one was seriously injured, but in October 2006 he was convicted of felony assault with a deadly weapon. While serving his seven-year sentence, he was convicted of an earlier domestic violence charge against his girlfriend and sentenced to an additional 25 years.

    So what to make of Lawrence Phillips? I phoned a former staff member at Nebraska who I have known for 15 years, a man who is as familiar with Phillips as anyone.

    What, I asked, is the underlying moral of the Lawrence Phillips story?

    “This is a story of one thing,” he said. “This is a story of a broken kid who never got the help, for whatever reason, that he really needed. He never got the help to overcome the demons that were created in his childhood.”

    In the end, in the case of Lawrence Phillips, the demons beat his angels.

    The D.A.’s investigation into the homicide of Damion Soward continues. Alone in his cell, Phillips waits for yet another judgment day.

    #22665
    Avatar photowv
    Participant
    #22668
    Avatar photozn
    Moderator

    Lawrence Phillips investigated for allegedly murdering prison cell mate

    By Frank Schwab

    http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/lawrence-phillips-investigated-for-allegedly-murdering-prison-cell-mate-234204431.html

    The Lawrence Phillips story, already full of many disturbing off-field problems, has taken a remarkably dark turn.

    Phillips is being investigated for murdering his cell mate in Kern Valley State Prison, according to Jason Galvin of KGET television. According to Galvin and confirmed by TMZ, Phillips is suspected of murdering Damion Soward, a 37-year-old who was serving 82 years to life for first-degree murder, on Saturday morning. Phillips is serving 31 years in prison in California for attacking his girlfriend and driving his car into three teens.

    Mention Phillips’ name around a football fan and the first thing that will come to mind is how troubled he was, sabotaging his promising football career. At the University of Nebraska, Phillips was suspended for an incident in which he allegedly dragged his ex-girlfriend by her hair down a flight of stairs. He was, incredibly, reinstated by the team before the end of the season. Nebraska went on to win a national championship.

    Phillips was, incredibly, drafted sixth overall by the St. Louis Rams in 1996, less than a year after he allegedly assaulted his ex-girlfriend. Adrian Peterson, perhaps the most impressive college running back ever and an NFL MVP, went with the seventh pick 11 years later, for reference on how amazing it was that the Rams took the troubled yet talented Phillips that high. Phillips was a massive bust for the Rams. He was not productive on the field and, not so incredibly, tough to deal with off it. He averaged just 3.4 yards with three NFL teams. He tried continuing his career in the Arena Football League, NFL Europe, the Canadian Football League, but never stuck long anywhere, often because he was tough to deal with.

    Phillips appeared in the news again in 2005 when he twice choked his girlfriend. Later in the year came the attack with his car on the teens after a pickup football game, according to the AP’s report.

    Now comes the report that Phillips is suspected of murdering his cell mate in prison. One of football’s truly horrible stories got even worse.

    #22670
    Avatar photoInvaderRam
    Moderator

    wow. that just sucks. all the way around.

    #22671
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    wow. that just sucks. all the way around.

    I wonder how many ex-rams are in prison?

    Enough for an All-Prison team?

    Probly not a good idea. Just Forget i said that.

    w
    v

    #22675
    Avatar photoInvaderRam
    Moderator

    i’m laughing. but yeah. not a good idea.

    but i am laughing.

    #22677
    TackleDummy
    Participant

    I wonder how many ex-rams are in prison?

    Enough for an All-Prison team?

    Probly not a good idea. Just Forget i said that.

    Are there others from the Rams?

    Another player who comes close to Phillips is Hernandez.

    #22678
    Avatar photozn
    Moderator

    I wonder how many ex-rams are in prison?

    Enough for an All-Prison team?

    Probly not a good idea. Just Forget i said that.

    Are there others from the Rams?

    Another player who comes close to Phillips is Hernandez.

    Henley.

    .

    #22681
    Avatar photozn
    Moderator

    Henley


    The wiki

    Darryl Keith Henley (born October 30, 1966 in Los Angeles, California) is a former American football cornerback in the National Football League. He was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in the 1989 draft from UCLA. In his career he played in 76 games and amassed 12 interceptions. Henley is currently serving a 41-year prison sentence for trafficking cocaine and attempting to murder the judge and a witness from his trial by hiring contract killers.

    #22682
    Avatar photocanadaram
    Participant
    #22695
    Herzog
    Participant

    Phillips was, incredibly, drafted sixth overall by the St. Louis Rams in 1996, less than a year after he allegedly assaulted his ex-girlfriend.

    Not our proudest moment.

    #22867
    Avatar photozn
    Moderator

    Not our proudest moment.

    The worst part? Well one of the worst parts. Brooks actually said that when he heard the “he dragged her down a staircase by the hair” story, that it sounded like it was her fault.

    #24805
    Avatar photoZooey
    Moderator

    Things are never easy, are they?

    This right here is exactly why I would never want to have the job of a judge.

    I will say this.

    My compassion level for Phillips just went up. I find that’s what information often does to early judgement.

    I don’t know, man. Tragedy. The whole story. Just tragedy.

    #24815
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    Things are never easy, are they?

    I will say this.
    My compassion level for Phillips just went up.
    I find that’s what information often does to early judgement.

    For twenty years I’ve experience that same exact dynamic:
    1 Judge appoints me to represent a defendant who’s done a terrible thing.
    2 I read the police report on the terrible thing.
    3 I have a visceral reaction to the terrible thing.
    4 I then actually talk to the defendant who did the terrible
    thing, and find out about his childhood…and by the time
    the meeting is over, i end up thinking, “geez, if I’d had
    that childhood, I’d have done the same terrible thing…”

    Society creates Frankensteins and
    then punishes them for being monsters.

    Yours truly,
    wv ram, system-blamer.
    ————
    For if you suffer your people to be ill-educated, and their manners to be corrupted from their infancy, and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded from this, but that you first make thieves and then punish them.”
    ― Thomas More, Utopia

    #24852
    lyser
    Participant

    I didn’t know a lot of that about LP. Some seem to be able to rise above their horrible childhoods while others are doomed by similar circumstances.

    I saw a thing on Mike Tyson over the weekend – it was just him on stage talking about his life – “the undisputed truth” I think it was called. It was sad, funny, and uplifting all at once – really, really good. Tyson seems to have his shit together these days.

    #24863
    Herzog
    Participant

    Things are never easy, are they?

    This right here is exactly why I would never want to have the job of a judge.

    I will say this.

    My compassion level for Phillips just went up. I find that’s what information often does to early judgement.

    I don’t know, man. Tragedy. The whole story. Just tragedy.

    Yeah. Tragic.

    #25981
    Avatar photozn
    Moderator


    Lawrence Phillips letters from prison

    http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on…n-letters-written-from-prison?ftag=YHR6f8d662

    Back in April, former NFL running back Lawrence Phillips was named a suspect in the death of his cellmate at Kern Valley State Prison in Delano, Calif, where he’s been incarcerated for almost eight years.

    In 2008, Phillips was sentenced to 31 years in prison for convictions that included domestic violence, spousal abuse, false imprisonment and vehicle theft.

    Not much is known about the life that Phillips is spending behind bars, until now that is.

    In a series of letters written to people who coached Phillips in high school and college, the No. 6 overall pick in the 1995 NFL Draft has been painting a harrowing picture of what it’s like to be incarcerated.

    The most recent letter was sent on May 3, just 22 days after the death of his cellmate. In that lettter, Phillips told former Nebraska assistant coach George Darlington that he’s “alright.”

    Phillips hasn’t yet been charged with anything in relation to his cellmate’s death.

    From the May 3 letter (All letters via USA Today)

    Dear Coach D,

    How are you doing coach? I am doing well.

    As far as the package, due to my current situation I may not be allowed it. So if you have not already sent the package do not send it.

    I cannot speak of the situation here but I am alright. Please let anyone know who asks you that.

    I hear Husker spring practices are a little more spirited. That is a plus. I do not think teams will ever practice how we practiced. … If a team ever comes back to that mentality, they will crush the college ranks.

    Alright Coach D, that’s all from here.

    Nebraska football is a common theme in Phillips’ letters. When he’s not describing the horrific situation in prison, Phillips spends most of his time talking about the Huskers.

    In a May 2014 letter to former high school assistant coach Ty Pagone, Phillips describes what causes a lockdown and mentions that he doesn’t have a cellmate.

    Dear Coach Pagone (May 29, 2014),

    We are still today on lock down due to some stabbings and assaults between black and white inmates. It has been ongoing for sometime.

    I am glad to hear Marie’s wedding was great. Usually an open bar leads to a lot of dancing.

    I do not have a cell mate. All of these dudes want to use drugs and (illegible) weapons in the cell. I’m in the process of applying for single-cell status. I will let you know how that goes.

    In another letter to Pagone, Phillips writes that the other inmates only care about three things: Drugs, making knives and making alcohol.

    At the end of the letter, Phillips also seems to show that he understands why people felt he was a lost cause after an NFL career that included just 25 games.

    Dear Coach Pagone (June 15, 2014),

    I received your letter and package a day apart. We do get the packages in lock down as the companies do not really want the items back.

    We have been in lock down about 80% of the time. You would be surprised at what these altercations are about! Nonsense! But when your world is this small all one has to care about is nonsense. That is why I do not want any of these idiots in the cell with me.

    All they they want to do is the drugs, make knives and make alcohol. Then they say when they get out they will not come back. I tell them of course you will. You are doing the same thing that got you locked up. Of course they do not want to hear that. It is like speaking to a brick wall.

    Now I understand how people must have felt talking to me. So needless to say I have zero friends inside here. Not one person is in line with my way of thinking.

    Well that’s all from here, Pagone. I will stay out of trouble. I might have to endure some write-ups for refusing a cell mate though. Better that than them getting me into serious trouble.

    In a letter to former high school coach Tony Zane, Phillips writes that it’s “completely nuts” in prison.

    Dear Coach Zane (July 6, 2014),

    I hear you were in Hawaii. I am sure you had a good time. Remember when we went out there and kicked their butt in the all-star game and they tried to hold up our bus and all that crap? Good times.

    Well there is not much happening here. We are still on lock down because they found a hacksaw in someone’s cell. Apparently people use the saw to cut up the bunks and make knives. It is completely nuts in here. It is pretty much a free for all.

    In another letter, written on Sept. 14, Phillips says he sides with the NFL in the then-recent cases involving Adrian Peterson and Ray Rice. Phillips also calls prison a “jungle” and says there’s “trouble everywhere.”

    Dear Coach D (Sept. 14, 2014),

    Huskers kicked butt out there. I only listened to the radio. The game was not televised here. (Nebraska running back Ameer Abdullah) has a real chance at the Heisman and the Huskers could win the Big 10, although the Big 10 is a bit watered down with the injury to O-State Q.B. (Braxton Miller).

    NFL is going through some stuff. Unfair to blame the NFL for what guys do. … These misdeeds by the players (are) being used by the liberal parties and the media to further their particular interests. Next they will be forcing out owners like they did with the Los Angeles Clippers owner (Donald Sterling).

    Well, there is nothing new happening here. We are still locked down. One of the guards was assaulted so it may be awhile. Coach D, this place is a jungle. Trouble everywhere. One must swallow his pride constantly or one will always be in the hole. But we must deal with the situation we put ourselves in.

    Unless he’s paroled, Phillips will be in jail until 2039 when he’ll be 64-years-old. The former Rams running back turned 40 on May 12.

    #25985
    PA Ram
    Participant

    I read the letters in U.S.A. Today and I kept wondering about how well, or how terribly that particular prison is run. They don’t seem to have much control. Basically constant lockdowns or fights. What a mess. It doesn’t sound like Phillips wanted to be part of that–and if it’s kill or be killed, well–there’s not a lot of choice there. It’s a shame that things have to ever come to that.

    I know nothing about the prison system beyond what I read.

    Years ago, when I got out of the air force, I kept getting letters from California prisons basically pitching jobs to me. All I could think of was how I could never imagine myself working in a place like that. Life can be depressing enough–but having to go into that every day?

    We have the highest prison population in the world. Something is wrong somewhere.

    I suppose with “for profit” prisons in the mix we won’t be seeing a change anytime soon.

    "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. " Philip K. Dick

    #29462
    Avatar photozn
    Moderator

    Lawrence Phillips to be prosecuted for death of cellmate

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2015/08/28/lawrence-phillips-prosecuted-cellmate-death/71313274/

    Lawrence Phillips, the former star running back, will be prosecuted for the death of his cellmate, a legal secretary with the Kern County (Calif.) District Attorney’s office told USA TODAY Sports Friday.

    Criminal charges against Phillips in the death of Damion Soward – found dead in April inside the cell he shared with Phillips in Kern Valley State Prison – will be filed with the court next week, said Pam Marshall, legal secretary with the district attorney’s office. Marshall said she will be filing the criminal complaint and related paperwork.

    Phillips, 40, who starred for the University of Nebraska in the 1990s before playing in the NFL, has not been available for comment. He is serving 31 years for driving his car into three teenagers and assaulting an ex-girlfriend.

    Prison officials identified Phillips as the suspected killer when Soward’s body was found, triggering an investigation into the death. Marshall said the investigation is complete.

    Andrea Bridges, who will be prosecuting the case, could not immediately be reached for comment.

    In June, USA TODAY Sports published a series of letters he wrote to former coaches and a mentor that referred to run-ins he had with inmates with gang ties. Soward was a former gang member serving 82 years to life for first-degree murder.

    #29465
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    I dunno how they iz gonna get a conviction
    when one witness is dead and one
    can claim self-defense.

    Its always extremely
    frustrating for people to deal
    with humans like Phillips. Because its always
    SOOO obvious when you are around people like that,
    that something is very wrong with their brains, and
    very bad shit is ‘going’ to happen in the future.
    They desperately need help to stop that from happening
    but all kinds of factors will prevent that help
    from arriving. Its like those twilight zone episodes
    where someone sees the future but is unable to
    prevent the bad dreams from happening.

    Phillips was a time-bomb just like Mike Tyson,
    and a gazillion others. I see people like that
    every week, and every week they go out into the world…
    without getting the help they need. Blah blah blah.

    w
    v

    • This reply was modified 9 years, 3 months ago by Avatar photowv.
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